Geotech is an oil company that is drilling for oil in Antarctica. The facility goes underground several stories. At the bottom is a moon pool. Lenny (Robert Axelrod) is left alone to complete his shift. While cleaning up he hears a noise coming from the moon pool. Thinking it is an ice water fish he attempts to catch it with a net. Lenny is pulled into the icy water.
Recently there have been a series of earthquakes that have rocked the facility. Nelson Schneider (Gotz Otto) expresses his concern about the quakes with the head of the facility, Dr. Monica Kelsey (Alexandra Kamp). Monica dismisses his concerns. Nelson is anxious to leave the rig, but he is required to get the incoming team up to speed.
Coming in by chopper are some post-grad students; Arianna (Karen Nieci), Tom (Howard Halcomb), Kate (Rebekah Ryan), and a computer whiz named Update (David Lenneman). They are doing a research internship on the rig. The researchers are there to investigate the earthquakes. Their time is limited since an investigation by the United Nations is scheduled to begin soon to determine if the rig should be shut down. Since time is of the essence, the chopper is flying despite the brewing storm outside. Also, on the chopper are Curtis (Allen Lee Haff), a young expert on drilling rigs, and Professor Ted Jacobson (David Millbern), Monica’s associate and the leader of the investigative team.
When Lenny is found, everyone believes he drowned. Arianna notices some unusual substance on the body. She discovers that it belongs to an ancient creature called a trilobite, but trilobites were small. What no one knows is that these trilobites are the size of large dogs. As everyone on the rig tries to go about their business, an ancient denizen of the icy deep begins to kill everyone on the rig.
“Deep Freeze” AKA “Ice Crawlers” was released in 2001 and was directed by John Carl Buechler. It is an American horror film that was shot in Germany.
This is your average low budget rubber monster movie. Although the trilobite is rubber, it is cool looking and my kind of monster. My only complaint about it is that it is not seen enough. There are some issues with the editing that makes it a little choppy at times. All the characters are basically throw away, and they are mostly thrown away. The only question is who will survive, if anyone. It’s not a great movie but, for the most part, I enjoyed it. Then again, I wasn’t expecting much.
The film uses footage from John Carpenter’s film “The Thing” 1982. The exterior shots of the Antarctic facility, helicopter footage and interior explosion scenes were all lifted from it.
Trilobites are arthropods (like insects, arachnids and crustaceans) that first appeared in the Cambrian Period, approximately 521 million years ago. They went extinct at the end of the Permian Period, around 250 million years ago. They were marine animals and had an exoskeleton. Most were 3 to 6 millimeters long, although some types could grow to 60 centimeters (2 feet) or more.